The Untold Story of Bill Henry's death and revival
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by Wizardman
I was surprised that this hasn't been on here yet. It's an interesting recent story that i dug up, so I figured I would write something up on it. Bill R. Henry's death and revival. From the Wikipedia article:
William (Bill) Rodman Henry (born October 15, 1927 Alice, Texas) is a former Major League Baseball pitcher who played from 1952-1969. He would play for the Cincinnati Reds, San Francisco Giants, Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Houston Astros, and Pittsburgh Pirates. Born in Alice, Texas, he began his career for the Red Sox in 1952, and was primarily a starter for the team. After a two year absence from the major leagues, he returned to MLB as a relief pitcher for the Cubs in 1958 and would only make 2 starts the rest of his career. As a relief pitcher, he amassed 90 saves.
So he played for quite a long time, then like most major leaguers fell into obscurity. On August 27, 2007, he passed away in Lakeland, at the age of 83. Or did he? I read it, and found it awfully iffy that it said he died at 83 and he lived 1927-2007. His late season was 1969 so if he was in fact born in 1924, then that would have been pretty impressive, pitching still at 45. The truth was eventually found out. Bill Henry died.
However, the Bill Henry that died was in fact not the baseball player. Rather, the pitcher was a victim of identity theft. Soeone has been living as him so 19 years. How he kept this up with the evidence against him I don't know. He said he was born in 1924 and the baseball cards were wrong. Plus, Pitcher was born in Texas, Fakey was born in Missouri. Of course, the real Bill Henry is now alive and well. To quote him, "I really can't understand why a man would do something like that. To impress his family or his neighbors?" It's rather odd. Still, a look at the two Bill Henry's early pictures are quite similar. It's these stories that show yet another price of fame.
